IDC has released third quarter market share estimates for tablet sales and it makes for interesting reading. It seems that the third quarter of 2013 has belonged to Android. Samsung had a great quarter, claiming 20.4 percent of shipments. ASUS also had a good period, moving up from 6.6% of market share, to 7.4%. Both saw big year-over-year gains, although they didn’t grow as quickly as up-and-comers like Acer and Lenovo. It’s not hard to see why ASUS and Samsung made such large strides as both the Galaxy Tab 3 line and the new Nexus 7 launched in the American summer.
Things weren’t quite as rosy for other tablet designers. While Apple was still the top manufacturer, it slipped below 30% in market share for the first time since tablets became mainstream. IDC hasn’t yet broken down shipments by OS, but it notes that the “others” category ““ which include Amazon, Microsoft and other small players ““ actually shrank slightly to 35.3%. The field is very likely to change in the fourth quarter between new iPads, the Kindle Fire HDX and Surface sequels. For now, though, it appears that the tablet market is shifting toward the giants of the Android world.
